From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Jan 14 2010 - 08:33:28 EST
The US as a great warrior tribe
By Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst
January 14, 2010
11:45 Mecca time, 08:45 GMT
According to tribal Yemeni tradition, if a dispute has been resolved
peacefully, any dagger that has been drawn cannot go back into its scabbard
unless it tastes blood. Traditionally, an animal is slaughtered to satisfy
its thirst and restore its holder's honour.
Since the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the
Warsaw Pact without a single shot, let alone nuclear warheads, being fired,
the 'Greater Middle East' region has been turned into a real theatre of war.
>From the Gulf war in 1991 through to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, from
Somalia in 1993 to Yemen in 2010, and through Afghanistan and Pakistan, the
US military has gone to great lengths to demonstrate its strategic capacity
to act in faraway places and to prove its ability to guard and advance US
and Western interests.
In no time, military means and out-right war and occupation replaced
diplomacy and international law.
In return, the Pentagon's budget has almost doubled from the level it was
before 9/11 to surpass the combined military expenditures of all the
countries of the world, all under the guise of the 'global war against
terror'.
Alas, the costly failures in Iraq and Afghanistan and other countries have
demonstrated that the Muslim world is far too stubborn to be offered as a
sacrifice in the pursuit of global leadership.
Tribal vs. state identities
Since then, the devastating wars of terror that have taken place in the
shadows of accelerated globalisation have weakened state structures and
institutions and reinforced tribal and sectarian identities. Regimes not
directly affected, took preventative measures by strengthening their grip on
power through increased security and tribal alliances.
The US and its regional allies have empowered and financed tribal leaders,
as in Iraq and Afghanistan, to defeat unrelenting Islamist opposition or
nationalist insurgencies, just as America's enemies have tried to gain the
support of tribes for their cause against the "foreigners".
Washington followed in the footsteps of the UK, which boasts extensive
experience of tribal politics in its former colonies, to arm and finance
tribal leaders to fight its war in Iraq under the guise of "The Awakening"
or ''The Sons of Iraq".
Likewise in Afghanistan, where the US built on its long experience with the
northern tribes in the 1980s to regain the initiative against the Soviet
supported regime in Kabul.
In the process, salient - and not so salient - tribal power has been
empowered in all the areas of conflict in the 'Greater Middle East' by
undemocratic leaders. Yemen, Libya, Jordan, Palestine and, even failed
states like Afghanistan and Somalia, have witnessed the emergence of tribal
loyalties and power.
But the failure of the US and its allies to attain stability - let alone to
declare victory - has slowly but surely transformed the political landscape
into a coalition of tribes or 'a warrior ruling tribe' over many.
'Sons of America'
This transformation was not limited to the Middle East. Compromised by
globalisation and market diktats, the most modern countries, such as the US,
just like the least modern, such as Yemen, are increasingly acting in
primordial ways and means.
As their sovereignty is compromised by multinational corporate decisions,
capital, labour and investment movements, as well as communication and
cultural globalisation, many states make up for their diminishing role over
their economy and culture through alternative means of collective identities
such as rallying their people around the flag.
With the advent of 9/11 and the 'war on terror', anger, humiliation and fear
nudged the US into wars of 'shock and awe', revenge, torture, and rendition
- stripping their 'enemy-combatants' of their very humanity in far away
prisons.
The politics of fear engineered by cynical racism and nationalism drove wars
that have compromised traditional republican values and civil liberties just
as its wars of choice undermined its 'social contract' and whipped US
citizens into a collective frenzy.
In short, the United States of America, the most powerful and advanced
liberal democracy, began acting as the most aggressive of all the world's
tribes. And although much of this change was engineered by the Bush
administration under the fog of the 'war on terror', Barack Obama's election
has defused war criticism, diminished the 'peace movement' and once again
united the country under the flags of war.
In the process, tribal loyalty replaced patriotism, revenge superseded
legality, and "you're either with US or against us" wrecked international
solidarity and even sympathy with the US after the 9/11 attacks.
War without end
As asymmetrical warfare takes up the fight from conventional wars, battles
are replaced by bombings and massacres, military bases by hideouts and
remote control rooms, population control and policing by propaganda and
terror, and national borders are surpassed by new fault lines passing
through every minor Middle Eastern state and every major Western city.
As Afghans, Pakistanis, Yemenis and Somalis volunteer to fight and even die
on behalf of their cause and collective identities, against corrupt
autocratic regimes, demoralised soldiers and private contractors with fancy
gear, who do you think wins at the end of the day?
Before you answer, consider two important lessons of asymmetrical war that
have been ignored in the sweeping post-9/11 transformation.
Firstly, in the long term, loyalty, kinship, sacrifice and a sense of
justice and belonging is more potent than firepower.
Secondly, "he who fights terrorists for any period of time is likely to
become one himself".
All of which begs for a change in the whole paradigm of the ongoing 'global
war on terror' that holds entire populations hostage to fear and war.
To be continued ...
http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2010/1/11/201011114151965580_8.j
pgHas the US become a 'ruling warrior tribe'? [GALLO/GETTY]
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----